Australia’s 2025 Digital Transformation Strategy is about delivering a vision for all Australians to thrive in an age of data and technology. It’s the most ambitious digital strategy ever prepared for the Australian public sector.

If you believe what you read, they are responsible for a global rise in narcissism, risky behaviors occasioning death and the damage of public property.

But does it have to be that way? How might we instead build on the positive, broader social impacts of selfies and what would those impacts be? ThinkPlace tackled these questions with the State Library of New South Wales when they wanted to redevelop their permanent exhibition galleries to be stunning, stereotype-challenging and focused on portraiture.

During a recent project, one of our user testers—I’ll call him “Mark”—said something that struck me. We were reviewing the accessibility of an online tool and Mark, who is blind, said: “Meeting accessibility guidelines isn’t just for a person with a physical impairment. It also helps someone who experiences anxiety or someone whose first language isn’t English”.